Europe On High Terror Alert

British, French Nab Suspects

Security Forces Step Up Activityafter Warnings

November 19, 2002|By Sebastian Rotella foreign correspondent

PARIS — With police across Europe on guard against a heightened threat of attack, a British court Monday ordered three Algerians, including a alleged senior al-Qaida figure, held on suspicion of terrorist activity. French police made three more arrests in a separate case.

Authorities say their security forces have stepped up activity because of indications that al-Qaida intends to strike in Europe, where it has recruited fighters and planned operations -- but has not successfully carried out an attack. Recent warnings, some concrete and others vague, have generated fear of a major attack in Europe.

"I think the threat in Europe is the highest it has been since Sept. 11," a top French law enforcement official said Monday.

British authorities gave few details about the case against the Algerians, whom a judge ordered held for a month without bail pending investigation of suspected "preparation, instigation or commission of terrorism."

But officials denied media reports that they had been planning a poison gas attack on London's subway system.

"It doesn't appear to be that there is any evidence whatsoever there was going to be a gas attack or indeed use of bombs regarding the three people who have been arrested," said Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in an interview with the BBC.

One of the suspects, Rabah Kadre, is a heavyweight in Europe-wide al-Qaida networks based in London, according to French and Belgian investigators. Kadre, 35, was a close associate of Abu Doha, the alleged leader of an Algerian-dominated network and accused mastermind of a failed attempt to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in 1999, investigators said.

Kadre also was an active recruiter sending French Muslims to Afghan training camps, according to authorities.

British police arrested Abu Doha and Kadre last February as they attempted to leave London for Saudi Arabia, according to Italian court documents. Abu Doha was held on terrorism charges. Kadre, who was suspected of an immigration violation, was released, according to authorities.

Kadre allegedly assumed Abu Doha's duties as a leading figure in the mostly Algerian and Tunisian networks that are trying to regroup despite a police crackdown since Sept. 11, investigators said.

British police arrested Kadre again Nov. 9 along with Rabah Cheaj Bias, 21, and Karim Kadouri, 33, both described as unemployed Algerians living in London. After spending time in Slovakia with a fraudulent French passport, Kadre returned to Britain a few days before his arrest, according to Slovak authorities and press

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his home secretary, David Blunkett, warned last week of an intensified al-Qaida menace. "Barely a day goes by without some new piece of intelligence coming via our security services about a threat to U.K. interests," Blair said.

Weakened by the U.S. military offensive in Afghanistan and a crackdown worldwide, al-Qaida and its affiliates have gone after European targets of opportunity in the Middle East and South Asia. A car bomb killed 11 French engineers in Karachi, Pakistan, in May and a truck-bomb killed 21 people, mostly German and French tourists, outside a historic synagogue in the Tunisian island of Djerba in April.

European law enforcement officials have stayed on top of the networks that operate in Europe and police have managed to break up the few plots that got under way. Al-Qaida also was thought to want to keep a lower profile in Europe so it could use the continent as a base for recruiting, indoctrination and logistics.

"There was this perception that nothing will happen in Europe because it provides too much cover," the U.S. official said. "That doesn't exist anymore."